Yes, Evie deserves better. Way better. And for all the media publicity she’s gotten for the past several years since this story came out, she’s gotten nothing for it. The Waria community is one of the largest trans communities in the world and, although they’ve recently become more politically active, they have a long way to go in getting some respect.

But for all those bemoaning the language and pronouns of the articles about her, I just want to remind you there was recently a post on Autostraddle about Private Manning which mis-gendered her and was never corrected. There was a recent post and interview with Melissa Ferrick which made no mention of how she performed at MichFest while trans women were still effectively banned from attending. I truly do appreciate that Autostraddle is trying to mention stories about trans persons (especially trans women) but trans awareness involves more than having a trans-themed story and a couple of occasional trans contributors, it means that people who contribute to the site should be thoughtful and aware how they’re demeaning trans people, perpetuating cis-normativity or ignoring trans-related issues in their ‘non-trans’ posts.

Evie’s situation is not at all unfamiliar. Southeast Asian countries have those similarities in terms of how LGBTs are treated. In the Philippines, they’re always the butt of jokes, no more than certain stereotypes (comedians/security guards/beauticians/bus conductor) and discrimination is just so weaved into the society. Wherever you are, racist/homophobic remarks are all over.

We also only had the concept of “transgender” here lately. Gays and lesbians have always just been baklas and tibos. The former, a blanket term for gays and MTF transgenders and the latter, a blanket term for lesbians and FTM transgenders, and both words can be used utterly disparaging.

Thank you for posting this story. I don’t read much (well, really any) mainstream news but I can count on Autostraddle to write about the stories that I’d care about. It’s always heartbreaking to read about the discrimination LGBTQ people face in other countries, which is often so much worse than what we face in the US.

I agree with your third feeling though, riese. Obama’s diverse experiences as a child and young adult are one of his greatest assets as a President. I’m not saying he’s perfect and don’t want to start any kind of political debate here, but it’s worth arguing that people who know LGBTQ individuals are less likely to have negative feelings towards us as a group. Like riese said, they rely less on stereotypes and more on real-life experiences to shape their opinions. So, even though Obama likely didn’t know Evie was trans* when she was his nanny (since she said herself she wasn’t open about it in front of him), he has the knowledge now and can look back and remember her as a caregiver who just happened to be trans* and hopefully there are positive associations there.

There’s also something to be said for the fact that Obama grew up in a family that would hire an out gay man or transwoman (depending on how Evie presented herself to them, which is unclear from the article) as a caregiver for their son. I feel like the Bush family would’ve rather their children be raised by a pack of wolves than by a gay or trans* person.

I couldn’t even read this due to the fucked up use of language. Isn’t one of the first guidelines of writing to write what you know? These writers/reporters who constantly get the lingo wrong should be ashamed of themselves simply because they are doing a SHITTY JOB writing (not necessarily cause they are offending a group of people, but yeah, that too!).

This is a heartfelt story.
Journalism headlines are just terrible these days. Absolutely horrible. They have no rhyme or reason as to what pieces of sentences they pick out of the story to create the title. “Barack Obama’s cross-dressing former nanny, other transgenders face abuse in Indonesia” is not only offensive but also doesn’t even flow well or make sense and shouldn’t have made it past the writer’s own mind, let alone copy editing and all else. This is a heartwrenching story and they’re making it out to be a fucking circus, as usual.

This really did break my heart, especially since we share the same name. I really really hope someone gets her out of there, though that would still leave the millions of other trans people to these conditions. It does remind me of just how amazingly fortunate I am to live in relatively trans-friendly Seattle. It could always be better, but it could also be a whole lot worse.

I read this on my phone this morning…and even though I was heartbroken by Obama’s nanny, I was also just so outraged at the blatant ignorance that the writer demonstrates with outdated, offensive terminology. Like, “transvestite”? “born as a man but believes she is really a woman”? REALLY, PAPI, REALLY?